EPISODE 56: JOY BEHAR
Joy Behar is a comedian, actress, writer and interviewer, best known as a co-host on ABC's The View for 16 seasons. From 2009 to 2011 she hosted The Joy Behar Show on HLN and Joy Behar: Say Anything! on Current TV from 2012 until 2013. This August, she's bring her new one-woman show Me, My Mouth & I to Guild Hall in East Hampton. In this conversation, Joy Behar talks about the times it got personal on The View, the real reason she left the show and why she turned down their offer to come back. Also- the crazy place she met her husband, why big houses in the Hamptons annoy her, Bill O'Reilly, the afterlife, Star Jones, piercings, death and the reasons it doesn't look good for God. Plus, Joy teaches Walker what the word "shkeaved" means. It's an action-packed 45 minutes.
Joy Behar is a comedian, actress, writer and interviewer, best known as a co-host on ABC's The View for 16 seasons. From 2009 to 2011 she hosted The Joy Behar Show on HLN and Joy Behar: Say Anything! on Current TV from 2012 until 2013. This August, she's bring her new one-woman show Me, My Mouth & I to Guild Hall in East Hampton. In this conversation, Joy Behar talks about the times it got personal on The View, the real reason she left the show and why she turned down their offer to come back. Also- the crazy place she met her husband, why big houses in the Hamptons annoy her, Bill O'Reilly, the afterlife, Star Jones, piercings, death and the reasons it doesn't look good for God. Plus, Joy teaches Walker what the word "shkeaved" means. It's an action-packed 45 minutes.
EPISODE 54: SUE COSTELLO
Sue Costello is an actress, comedian, writer and producer. She's appeared in the Academy Award winning film The Fighter with Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale, (directed by David. O Russell), and on countless television shows including NYPD Blue, Comedy Central's Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn, NBC’s Last Comic Standing, (where she made it to the finals) and on the Fox sitcom Costello which she co-created and produced. She's been featured twice on Marc Maron’s podcast WTF and hosts her own podcast: The Kadoozie Kast.
In this conversation, Sue talks about her journey from the streets of Dorchester to Hollywood, and how she found herself along the way. She talks about working with David O. Russell and Christina Bale on The Fighter, how her experience in Hollywood taught her to trust that she was enough, what she does when she has the instinct to throw a punch and how she always knew that love was more powerful than fear.
EPISODE 48: PAULA POUNDSTONE
Paula Poundstone is one of the great humorists of our time. A beloved panelist on NPR’s popular weekly news quiz show, Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me, she alsotours regularly, performing standup comedy across the country. Known for her spontaneity and ability to engage with an audience, Poundstone has said: “No two shows I do are the same. It’s not that I don’t repeat material. I do. My shows, when they’re good, and I like to think they often are, are like a cocktail party." Paula's book, There is Nothing In This Book That I Meant To Say was published in 2006, and her new CD, I HEART JOKES: Paula Tells Them in Boston follows her first CD, I HEART JOKES: Paula Tells Them in Maine. In this radio interview, Paula talks about why she hates doing radio interviews, preparing for Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, what Robin Williams did to help her when she started out in comedy, how she discovered her talent for interacting with audiences and why technology makes parenting harder.
EPISODE 40: ALI WENTWORTH
Ali Wentworth is an actress, comedienne and author. TV Viewers may remember her as Jerry's girlfriend "Schmoopie" on the famous soup nazi episode of Seinfeld, or as a cast member on In Living Color, where she became known for her impersonations of Cher, Hillary Clinton, Princess Diana, Brooke Shields, Lisa Marie Presley and Sharon Stone, among others. For 3 seasons she starred as Dr. Elizabeth Goode, a self-obsessed therapist-to-the-stars in the Starz comedy Head Case, and she can currently be seen hosting Daily Shot, a short daily talk show segment on Yahoo! Shine. On the BIG screen she's appeared in Jerry Maguire, Office Space and It's Complicated. She and her husband George Stephanopoulos have two children and split their time between Manhattan and the Hamptons. In this conversation Ali talks about being a wasp, how growing up in a political family shaped her sense of humor and desire to push the envelope, how her experiences with horrible therapists inspired her character on Head Case and why George Stephanopoulos is the perfect man for her.
EPISODE 37: COLIN QUINN
Comedian Colin Quinn is best known for his work on Saturday Night Live, (where he worked as a writer, cast member and host of Weekend Update from 1995 until 2000), and for his presence on Twitter, where he posts self-deprecating, abrasive and intentionally provoking statements about fame and life. His show Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn ran on Comedy Central from 2002-2004, and he's been seen in both Grown Ups films with Adam Sandler, on Caroline's Comedy Hour, and on HBO's Girls. More recently Colin has been writing and performing two one-man shows: Long Story Short, which offers a comedic take on world history, and Unconstitutional, which is based on the US Constitution. Currently, Colin is writing and starring in the online web series Cop Show- a parody of popular New York City crime dramas. He's been listed as No. 56 on Comedy Central's 100 greatest stand-up comedians of all-time. In this conversation, Colin talks about the SNL days, his take on evolution, his penchant for the politically incorrect, why NOT joking about someone is often an indication of bias and why it sucks to be more famous than you are rich.
EPISODE 33: RICK CROM, PART II
Part 2 of my conversation with actor/comedian/songwriter Rick Crom! Perhaps best known as Louis CK's gay poker buddy on the critically acclaimed, Emmy Award winning show Louie on FX, he's also been seen on Chappelle's Show, Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn and Caroline's Comedy Hour. As a comedian, he's a regular at The Comedy Cellar in New York and has performed in clubs throughout the country. As an actor, Rick has appeared on Broadway in The Goodbye Girl (with Martin Short and Bernadette Peters), Footloose, and Urinetown. As a songwriter, Rick wrote the book, music and lyrics for Newsicle, a musical that lampoons current events, celebrities and trends which has been running Off-Broadway since 2009, and has earned him several Drama Desk Award nominations for Outstanding Lyrics. Newsicle is currently enjoying an open-ended run at The Kirk at Theatre Row. In Part 2 of our conversation, Rick continues to makes me laugh A LOT. Plus, he talks about his television work, including the origin of his famous poker scene on Louie, the effect that scene continues to have; the reason he waited so long to come out publicly, and why being a comedian is so therapeutic.
EPISODE 32: RICK CROM, PART I
Rick Crom is an actor, singer, comedian and songwriter. Perhaps best known as Louis CK's gay poker buddy on the critically acclaimed, Emmy Award winning show Louie on FX, he's also been seen on Chappelle's Show, Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn and Caroline's Comedy Hour. As a comedian, he's a regular at The Comedy Cellar in New York and has performed in clubs throughout the country. As an actor, Rick has appeared on Broadway in The Goodbye Girl (with Martin Short and Bernadette Peters), Footloose, and Urinetown. As a songwriter, Rick wrote the book, music and lyrics for Newsicle, a musical that lampoons current events, celebrities and trends which has been running Off-Broadway since 2009, and has earned him several Drama Desk Award nominations for Outstanding Lyrics. Newsicle is currently enjoying an open-ended run at The Kirk at Theatre Row. In Part 1 of our conversation, Rick talks about making his comedy debut in Chicago, and how the harsh competition that greeted him in New York propelled him into a successful cabaret and Off-Broadway career as a songwriter and a residency at The Comedy Cellar; the importance of having an original, unpredictable point of view when writing a funny song; the best way to deal with nerves in an audition; and what it's like to be a swing on Broadway. He also does impressions of Kirk Douglas, Don Pardo and a gay John Wayne that you don't wanna miss. Tune in.
EPISODE 25: BRUCE VILANCH
Bruce Vilanch is a six-time Emmy Award winning comedy writer and actor. Probably best known to the public for his 4 years stint on Hollywood Squares, he is a featured writer for the Tonys, Grammys and Emmys and has been head writer for the Oscars since 2000. Bruce Vilanch began his career writing for Bette Midler in the mid 70s, before going on to write for such stars as Diana Ross, Billy Crystal, Lilly Tomlin, Roseanna Barr, Rosie O'Donnell, Elizabeth Taylor and Robin Williams, among many others. Vilanch was the subject of the 1999 documentary Get Bruce, which you can find on Netflix, and he appeared off-Broadway in his one-man show, Bruce Vilanch: Almost Famous. In this conversation, Bruce answers questions about the James Franco-Anne Hathaway-Oscars Fiasco, and talks about his dreams of being a movie star, how he professional relationship with Bette Midler began, what it was like to work with Robin Williams and how he feels about other people speaking his words all the time.
EPISODE 6: DAVID BRENNER
Some have credited David Brenner as the originator of observational comedy. Master of the adlib, no one could shoot from the hip quite like him, and no one sat on Johnny Carson's couch more times than he did. I had the great pleasure of interviewing David a number of times over the years, and this is our very first conversation, which I always remember fondly. RIP David Brenner. Thanks for the laughter.
EPISODE 5: RITA RUDNER
Rita Rudner isn't known as the queen of one-liners for nothing. Tune in to hear Rita talk dancing, end-of-summer sales in Westhampton Beach, her love of dresses, men, Botox in Las Vegas, , and how an in-flight meeting with Ben Stein lead her to adopt a child- all while delivering one zinger after another and cracking me the hell up. If you need a good laugh, (or twenty), listen to this episode. You won't be disappointed.
EPISODE 4: SANDRA BERNHARD
Sandra Bernhard is famous for many things: her roles in Scorsese's The King of Comedy and TV's Roseanne, her one-woman shows, her relationship with Madonna in the 80s, her outspoken activism, and putting drag queens on the map. In town to perform her latest one-woman show I Love Being Me Don't You?, she called in to talk about her love of fashion, her childhood dreams of being a "comedienne", where her confidence comes from, how being a mother has changed her and why she doesn't love twitter, but tweets anyway. Oh-- and it's pronounced Sandra, like SAND-ra, or ANN-dra... not Sahhdra like BLOND-dra. Just tune in, you'll understand.
EPISODE 3: CHEECH MARIN
Turns out I did not have to be blitzed to have an enjoyable conversation with Cheech Marin. Of course everyone knows him as one half of Cheech & Chong, but he's also an art collector with one of the largest private collections of Chicano art in the United States. While in town being honored as Art Hampton's Patron of the Year at their international fine arts fair, he stopped by the studio to talk art, improvisation, getting his start in a topless bar in Vancouver, why he and Tommy broke up and how they got back together, why marijuana needs to be legalized, what it means to him to be Chicano and how he got the name Cheech. Plus-- the conception of 'Dave', Sister Mary Elephant and more.
EPISODE 1: MARIO CANTONE
Mario Cantone did not let our interview get in the way of his beauty rest. He called me from the comfort of his bed on a Tuesday afternoon in May to discuss Steampipe Alley (the children's show that broke him into show business), Sex and the City, the impressions he was afraid to do but did anyway, his hatred of reality TV, and what it was like to come out in the 70s and be an openly gay comic in the 80s. Does Mario break into song in the middle of the interview? Does he berate me for neglecting to mention his multiple appearances on The View? Tune in to find out.